Our ongoing series, Journal Your Way to Clarity, is designed to help you better understand how your life is shaped by your career, relationships, love, sex, money, family, and purpose.

Today, we are discussing money. They say that money makes the world go round because it’s absolutely necessary to feed and clothe and house ourselves and our loved ones. But within that purely transactional necessity lies another truth: money carries with it a tremendous amount of emotional weight.

Think about a $10 bill. It holds the same buying power for everyone, but not everyone values that $10 in the same way. Our upbringing and our experiences with money shape our perspective and perception of it’s worth. Sometimes it’s difficult to know whether we’re considering the $10 as dollars and cents, or if we are reacting to what that $10 represents for us. So it’s useful to examine how money influences our moods and behavior, our relationships, and even our own sense of self.

Toward the end of the episode, I invite you to participate in some thought exercises that will help you focus in on how money makes you feel—both as a giver and a receiver. I encourage you to combine these exercises with journaling, especially if money is having an adverse effect on your well-being.

For journaling, a plain pad of paper and pen will do. But, if you want a guided journaling experience, I encourage you to get The Treasured Journal, which includes questions, prompts, and sentence stems that will help you open up and get your thoughts flowing. You can get the journal and its companion meditation guide at this link:

THE TREASURED JOURNAL - https://danielleireland.com/journal

Feel free to reach out with questions, comments, or experiences that you want to share. I would love to hear from you! And thank you for listening. If you liked this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe. Your feedback helps me increase the value of the program for you and makes it easier for other listeners to find us.

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The “Don’t Cut Your Own Bangs” podcast is edited by Marilou Marosz.